perspective (and other things I learned last night)

Something bad and sad happened last night. Due to something I did (or did not do) I lost a lot of my pictures from my computer. I lost six weeks worth--except for what I put on my blog, sent to people, sent to Costco or put on Picasa. Basically I lost Fish Lake, Yuba and random July pictures. I still have the thumbnails of them--my next project is to find out how to copy the thumbnails and be able to use them. Maybe I will make a very miniature scrapbook of these events--one that you have to use a magnifying glass to see.

I found out that the pictures were missing at midnight last night. You see, I had been having this feeling that I needed to backup my photos and send some to Picasa to share with people. The last time I burned to DVD was about 3 months ago. The problem is that I had been putting off the feeling for about a week. So last night I went to do it, and they were gone.

I tried to find them somewhere in the vast computer universe. Then at about 1 I went up and told Mike I was sick to my stomach and I couldn't go to sleep and how could I be so stupid and what am I going to do and no, just go back to bed. Cause then he was up trying to find them. Then at 3 we both went to bed. I cleaned the kitchen while he worked on the computer.

Ya'll know that I am not the damsel-in-distress type. But in that moment I really wanted my Prince Charming to save me and find the pictures. He couldn't. Then I felt bad for him because I think he wanted to save me too.

As I lay there in bed I slowly snapped out of it and got some perspective. I can't even write what thoughts I had--I suppose I am a bit superstitious. Anyway, I thought of all the bad things that could happen to me or the ones I love. None of those things happened.

I also learned a few things. I will share them, you know, in the spirit of don't make the same mistakes I did.

The first thing I remembered was to not freak out over the small stuff. There are so many big things--I will not get caught up worrying about the little ones.

I learned that when I get that feeling--you know the one. The little prompting to do something. Well, I am going to try and listen next time.

I learned that I must become more familiar with my computer and that I must backup my pictures more often.

I learned that pictures are great (I still love and will continue to take lots of pictures) but that it is the experience that really mattered. The memories of the things we did are the most valuable.

I learned that things seem so much worse in the middle of the night. I think God created us to need sleep so that we can start fresh everyday.

I learned that even though he got mad at me and even though he couldn't make it all better, in the end Mike was there to listen and hold me until I went to sleep. (tender, huh?)

We are heading out on one last vacation before the kids start school, so I have an afternoon of errands--Costco, Target and Harmons--the usual. I am not going to look at my computer files anymore for now. I am going to focus on making some great memories in Yellowstone. Then when I get home I will focus on not losing the pictures of those memories.